FAD diets = not so good

FAD DIETS can also lead to eating disorders. I for one was on a fad diet, the South Beach diet. I started off with the no carbs the first two weeks and saw positive results. After that I decided, “hey i like this I can keep this up!” Six months later I lost 15 pounds going under my goal weight of 115 to 110. I loved the attention I was getting. At this point I wasn’t purging or exercising excessively, or at least I thought so. I was just eating the same thing every day, my safe foods and always seemed to be mad at the world. This went on for two and half years.

Once I went to college and saw everyone else eating everything in the universe, I suddenly lost my will power. Perhaps, I could not deal with the distance of my friends and family. I began to binge and purge. I learned you don’t get any skinnier when you binge! WOW weird huh? When a person takes laxatives to release the intake of food, he or she surprising only gets rid of 10% of the calories.

The DSM-IV-TR for Bulimia states a person must binge eat at least twice a week for three months, feel a lack of control when eating and purging i.e. laxatives, starving, exercise, enemas, diuretics, and vomiting. Anorexia Nervosa states the refusal to maintain body weight at or above normalcy, distorted body image, fear of weight gain. He or she may also binge and purge or restrict. When an anorexic being goes under their natural weight, they develop a layer of furry hair, like peach fuz, called lanugo. This is a defense mechanism in order to protect the body from hypothermia. Both of these “eating problems”, as I like to refer to them as, can be caused by biological, social or psychological dimension.

It is important to seek help to find the root of the problem, for it is not worth living life for others, or living life under certain constraints let alone all health risk which come a long with these disorders. I myself am now seeking counseling and have learned a lot about myself and the sickness.